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Thursday, 28 March 2013

The Sewing Bug...

The Sewing Bug

In a bid to achieve one of my "27 Things to Do in the Year I Turn 27" , and in desperation to get out of the house and DO something for a few hours a week, I recently signed up to a Kitchen Table Sewing beginners course. The course ran over 4 weeks for 2 hours on a Wednesday evening, a just-about-manageable amount of time for me to be able to sit & concentrate with my bad back. KTS is run by the wonderful Janet Lehain who I met through the Scone Roses WI, and who I am now lucky enough to call my friend. She runs the courses from her kitchen table, and you'll only ever be one of four attendees. Sadly, the course finished last night, and it was Janet's last course for a while as she's soon to have a baby and move house - but watch this space, as I'm sure she'll run courses again in the future.

I was lucky enough to attend the course with two of my lovely friends Clare and Angie, and met a lovely new friend called Lucy who was our number 4 attendee. Janet has the patience of a saint, and taught us all the basics of using and maintaining a sewing machine, basic stitches etc. Over the 4 weeks we made a set of two cushion covers, as well as a fully lined tote bag (in contrasting fabrics) with a double front pocket and boy am I pleased with the results!

It beggars belief that before the course I had no experience on a sewing machine, and now my confidence has built, and I'm starting some solo projects at home, using a machine I have gratefully borrowed from Janet while she has her time off from teaching.

So, let me share with you my creations...

Two cushions using "Cockatoos" fabric, designed by Quentin Blake - to match our Nursery wallpaper...

I am majorly in love with this fabric/wallpaper - I hope Baby Bishop loves it!

I have officially got the sewing 'bug', and decided to try a few simple projects at home on my newly-borrowed machine. I found a pattern on Sew Scrumptious Blog for a bandana style bib - and had a go at a couple of these this morning. One in girlie wipe-clean oilcloth, and another in a gender-neutral spotty fabric with absorbent towelling back. Obviously, theres no baby to model these yet, so Monkey had to do for now!

They're not perfect, but for a first attempt at the pattern I'm pleased. I'm sure I'll make lots more of these...you can never have enough bibs, right?

wipe clean oil cloth - a girlie bib

spotty/towelling bib, gender-neutral

modelled by Monkey

modelled by Monkey

My next project is a roll up baby changing mat using the Quentin Blake fabric, and some gingham oil cloth - as seen on Kirstie's Vintage Home on Channel 4. I've started cutting out the fabric etc, so hope to have this completed in the next few weeks. Watch this space....

Cake Fame

In other news... my recent Easter bake for the Clandestine Cake Club the Queen Mother Cake is famous! It's just been shown on the Channel 4 programme "Whats Cooking?" with Lisa Faulkner and Ben Sheppherd. :-) They asked viewers to tweet in their pictures of their Easter bakes, and their favourite ones were shared live on air. How cool! :-)

3 comments:

Love all your makes! Really love the Quentin Blake fabric. Gorgeous. So pleased you liked the bib tutorial. Yours look fab! Well done. Its so lovely seeing what other people have made. Thanks for sharing. xx

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